


When Angel Patience Is Gone

by undersail2013



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, guinea pigs, rexford idaho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 03:30:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undersail2013/pseuds/undersail2013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel needs to fill his days in Idaho</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Angel Patience Is Gone

When "Steve McQueen" first took the job at the Gas-n-Sip, his replacement never came in. Nora asked if he wouldn't mind staying a few hours more to cover. Word got around that the new guy was happy to take the crappy night and weekend shifts, no need to swap. Until corporate realized how many hours he was actually working and ordered a stop to it. 

 

Cas suddenly found himself with nothing to do in his leisure hours. Sure, eating and sleeping took up a lot of time. But angel patience no longer passed the time of day. He had tried. He had tried sitting quietly on a park bench, watching humanity, but the perch ceased to be comfortable much more quickly than he anticipated, now that he could feel his bony butt, straight down to the wooden slats beneath it. Add to that his frustration over the loss of his powers, powers that could help the sick and troubled before him, and the exercise was doomed to failure.

 

Faced with another long afternoon of ennui, Cas decided to attempt a circuit of the town. On a slow Tuesday afternoon, he had memorized the road maps in the spinner display, and he now calculated that the town of Rexford could be circumnavigated, on foot, in approximately three hours, if he included the outlying farms in his route. Yes, if he started from the center of town and travelled radially to the smallest circumference that would fully encompass the town, he'd be back where he started at nightfall. 

 

He began. He did not make it to his planned starting point.

 

One block before the exact center of the mental circle he had laid out, Cas spied a shop window that gave him pause. He tilted his head at the fluffy rodents. "Guinea pigs," he mused. 

 

The bell clanged as he pushed the door open. The scent of a dozen dozen animals hit his senses: dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, fish. Recovering, he realized that, despite the presence of guinea pigs, this was not a food store but a place to purchase companion animals. He asked the shop owner about the creatures in the front window. 

 

Barely had he finished gesturing to the enclosure, and the clerk scooped up a particularly furry specimen and deposited it into Castiel's hands. She then treated Cas to a lengthy spiel on the history and care of guinea pigs. 

 

"Huma- 'people' don't eat them?"

 

The girl laughed. "Maybe in the Andes, but not Americans! They're too cute," she continued in a cooing tone of voice, "aren't you, sweetie?"

 

"Um," Cas said. "Am I-" He stopped. She was talking to the rodent. "Um, yes, he is," he replied, his voice matching hers, if an octave or two lower. "Cute, um, sweetie."

 

He did not buy a guinea pig, nor any other animals to share his lonely human days. But he did find solace in regular visits to the store with so many fluffy little listeners.

 

He was on the verge of telling Nora of his intention of seeking employment at the pet shop on Main. It would probably serve as a good topic of conversation during the date. But then Dean Winchester walked into the Gas-n-Sip.


End file.
